April 21, 2009

Aggie men finish 4th at LSC

THACKERVILLE, Oklahoma (April 21) – Cameron’s men’s golf team saw its 2008-2009 season come to a close today with a solid 4th place finish at the annual Lone Star Conference Championship tournament. The Aggies finished the three-round event with a total team score of 859 (284-286-289). All 10 LSC men’s golf teams took part in the event at the WinStar Golf Club in Thackerville, Oklahoma.

“I’m definitely happy with the way we played in this tournament because we played good golf,” Head Coach Jerry Hrnciar said. “The highest score we had to count was a 73, and that’s pretty darn good. We can’t be disappointed with that.”

The Northeastern State RiverHawks ran away with the LSC team championship with a total score of 825 (269-275-281). With a total of 9 scores below 70 strokes, NSU was in the lead throughout.

Colby Shrum of the University of Central Oklahoma Bronchos won the individual title with a three-round score of 201 (69-67-65). As a team the Bronchos finished in 2nd place.

Cameron finished behind NSU (825), Central Oklahoma (835), and Midwestern State (840) in the conference tournament.

Leading the way for Cameron was senior Joe Koniecznzy who turned in the teams only top-ten finish. With a three-round score of 212 (68-71-73), Koniecznzy paced the Aggies with a tie at 9th place overall.

“I’m pretty proud of our only senior (Koniecznzy); he had the best tournament of his career,” Coach Hrnciar said. “This was a good ending for him and I’m very happy about that.”

Koniecznzy also hit the only hole-in-one in the event, with an ace on hole fourteen in the opening round.

Four strokes behind CU’s only competing senior was junior Robbe Trout who finished in a tie at 22nd place overall. Trout shot a 216 (73-71-72) in the event.

Juniors Michael Lee and Brett Leavell tied at 27th place overall after three impressive rounds. Lee (75-71-72) and Leavell (72-73-73) both finished with 218 total strokes.

“Overall we played as good as I could have hoped for with the exception of our putting,” Coach Hrnciar said. “We left a lot of shots on the course and didn’t make shorter putts. That was the only disappointing part.”

Rounding out the five CU scores was freshman Garrett Smith who took home a 44th place finish in the 50-golfer event. Smith’s three-round score was 224 (71-81-72). He recorded the team’s only 80+ finish.

“When you leave the season feeling this good, it takes away the sting of not qualifying for the regional tournament for the first time,” Coach Hrnciar said “Maybe this is the start of our next season. We sure are going to look at it that way.”

The Cameron men’s golf team now enters the offseason training portion of their schedule. The 2009-2010 men’s golf season will begin early next fall.